Conserving Threatened Wet Tropics Vegetation project

Protecting nature’s corridors

NQ Dry Tropics is leading a four-year project to improve the lot of endangered ecological communities and species in the wet tropics area just to the north of Townsville.

The Conserving Threatened Wet Tropics Vegetation project also aims to improve the condition of threatened ecological communities such as broad leaf tea-tree (Melaleuca viridiflora) woodlands, beach scrubs or littoral rainforest, coastal vine thickets and lowland tropical rainforests in the region.

In turn, this will improve habitat used by two species on Queensland’s “threatened” list — the Mahogany glider (Petaurus gracilis) and the Southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii).

Project manager NQ Dry Tropics Biodiversity Project Officer Chris Corder hopes to achieve the  improvements by tackling some of the threats to the ecological communities through:

• weed control;
• debris removal;
• property management plans —
  • better grazing management
  • better fire regimes; and
• discouraging dumping, 4WDs and other damaging activity on natural areas.

This will be achieved through workshops in the area, and targeted communications products including signage.

Chris said he would work with landholders to adopt land management regimes, particularly with regards to managing fire and grazing that would support recovery of any threatened ecological community on their property.

He said he would focus on building on past work conducted in the Littoral rainforests (or beach scrubs) by continuing with weed control and debris removal.

The Broad leaf tea tree and Lowlands rainforest provide wildlife with corridors through which they can move freely between habitats.

This connectivity between ecosystems plays a critical role in maintaining healthy and resilient natural environments, supporting genetic diversity, species adaptation, and migration.

For threatened species, such as the Mahogany glider and the Southern cassowary, connected habitats offer safe passage to resources, breeding grounds, and refuge from threats.

Ecological connectivity also enhances the resilience of ecosystems to disturbances like fire, extreme weather events, and climate change.

By linking fragmented habitats, conservation projects create ecological corridors allowing ecosystems to function as cohesive units, promoting biodiversity and long-term sustainability.

In the Wet Tropics, improving connectivity between Threatened Ecological Communities supports individual species and fortifies the broader landscape.

This project is jointly funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust and NQ Dry Tropics, a member of the Regional Delivery Partners panel.

This project will help to fill in some of the knowledge gaps about the numbers and southern extent of the range of the threatened southern cassowary.

Ecologist Wren McLean of Superb Wren Ecological Services leads the Paluma Range Cassowary research project conducting sign, fruit and camera trap surveys to determine distribution and abundance of cassowaries in the area.

The project, continuing on from BirdLife Townsville work in the area, will also examine habitat condition and identify existing and potential threats.

Ms McLean said birds had been located and photographed in traps at Paluma Range. She said they were likely to move across a large area to reach specific fruiting trees or high density stands of fruit trees.

Breeding season, a period when males and females are more mobile and likely to cross into each other’s ranges, begins as early as April and continues through to August.

Before the male can think about mating, however, he must make sure chicks from the previous year have struck out on their own and won’t hinder his attempts to find a mate.

Mating accomplished, the females lay three to five distinctive olive-green eggs between June and October leaving the males to incubate the eggs and raise the hatchlings.